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Content, SEO and social media news: weekly round up – 05/04/2013

Email marketing delivers good ROI, say marketers

A new survey from Econsultancy and Adestra has shown that around two thirds of marketers (66%) believe that email marketing delivers a ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ ROI, despite competition from more contemporary marketing methods such as social media. The figures, which come from the Email Marketing Industry Census 2013, show positive attitudes towards email marketing in general, but the study revealed some less than impressive stats about the willingness to optimise when it came to this format. 27% of marketers stated that they had no time at all to optimise their campaigns, and a staggering 15% admit that their campaigns are ‘poor’. The lesson here seems to be that email marketing can be very effective, but only for companies who are willing to invest the necessary time and effort to get it right.Hashtags can work for brands

Another key survey from this week, this time from RadiumOne, has highlighted the importance of brands using hashtags as part of their social media marketing. According to the research, 20% of consumers find hashtags useful when they’re researching a product, and 30% said they used them to identify trends. Many of the participants also said that they would use a branded hashtag themselves – in exchange for a discount. 50% of respondents agreed that they would use hashtags more frequently if they were part of an offer, and 17% would even post the promotion on their other social media pages and connect with the participating brand for a promotional code or money off.

Mulberry brand spammed by black hat SEO

Luxury fashion brand Mulberry has this week found itself being impersonated by fake online stores, which have now reached the front page of the SERPSs using black hat SEO techniques. These hacked sites have descriptions of various Mulberry products, and even feature hyperlinks to the official Mulberry site. As they are hosted in locations as diverse as China and Luxemburg, Mulberry has not yet succeeded in getting these sites shut down, but is trying to ensure that its customers are aware of the dangers of this scam.